lost to himself lost to his right wits because he hath no knowledge or no good opinion of the comfort of Prayer Which is my purpose to make him learn by that which follows looking upon the Substance or Matter of Prayer The Qualification of him that Prayeth and the fitness of Time when Prayer is to be made I. The Matter of Prayer is as copious as all occasions that can be named it shall suffice for my purpose to treat of three Heads Glorifications with Thanksgivings Supplications and Intercessions 1. The first is bent to magnifie the Almighty to extol his Name to praise him for his Goodness This is the Hallelujah of David and of the Saints in Heaven that is give glory to Jah or the great Jehovah which is followed with a rare variety in the Song of the three Children O all ye works of the Lord bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever It is a ditty that is balsamed all over with a perfusion of delight to praise God from all things that he hath made from the centre of the Earth to the top of Heaven And this is most divinely exprest in that which is called St. Ambrose his Hymn in our Common-Prayer We praise thee O God we knowledge thee to be the Lord And let the servant of God that will listen to me repeat it often and often For it is a piece of devotion so sweetly spread out into the branches of Heavenly praise Confession of Faith and devout Petitions that the like did never come forth since the time it was penn'd Let me speak to others out of the sense of my own heart and I may safely profess that in the service and worship of God I find nothing so delightful as to continue in the praise and honour of the Lord. If another contradict it and say that there are some means more aptly calculated as I may speak for the high Meridian of Comfort He is He and I am I and I appeal from him to my self what I find in my own motions and feelings And what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 And I observe that in the prudent institution of our Church to hold forth the Consolation we have in Christ after the participation of his Body and Bloud in the blessed Sacrament it teacheth us to break out all together into a Jubilee Glory be to God on high We praise thee we bless thee we glorifie thee c. For when we are full of that holy Feast and have eaten Angels food we fall into the tune of Angels and signifie immediately before we depart how much our Spirit rejoyceth in God our Saviour But who knew better the mind of the Lord than the Spirit it self in those admirable exstacies of David Sing praises unto God for it is pleasant Psalm 135.3 Sing praises unto our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely Psalm 147.1 Sing aloud unto God our strength make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob Psalm 81.1 Every furrow in the book of the Psalms is sown with such seeds I know nothing more certain more constant to expel the sadness of the world than to sound out the praises of the Lord as with a Trumpet and when the heart is cast down it will make it rebound from Earth to Heaven This was the wisdom of the holy Church throughout all the world till distempers put us out of the right way not long since to solemnize the praise of our Saviour upon the Feasts of Christmas Easter c. that we might celebrate the great works which God hath done for us with the voice of joy and praise and with a multitude that kept Holy Day Psalm 42.4 O give thanks unto the Lord be telling of his mercy and salvation from day to day Give thanks unto him with chearfulness for a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful Who is a just man and fair condition'd that would not pay a debt and be exonerated of it He that can say he hath paid what he ow'd is it not a quietness to his mind to be discharg'd It goes further a great deal and brings more advantage when we offer up the sacrifice of retribution the incense of Thanksgiving unto the Lord for we draw on more benefits when we declare the goodness of the Lord upon the receipt of the old And the gratuitum which God gives is a thousand fold greater than the present which we bring This proposed to them that will fly high from the pinacle of the Lord's Prayer the first Petition Hallowed be thy Name 2. Neither let them faint that stoop low in Supplication for mercy will embrace them on every side Two things being put together are of much weight we pray with God's Spirit and by his Word He invites us in his Word to pray and he gives the gift with which we pray I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace and Supplications Zach. 12.10 Did He pour upon us his Grace and have we received a Commandment the outward sign of his Will and can we suspect after all this that He will put us off and deny us Is his Grace given in vain or hath He sent his Word to delude us He hath kindled a fire in our breasts and it is an Heavenly flame that burns within us Lord though we are vile and despicable thou canst not despise the acting of thine own Spirit nor frustrate thine own operations Or do we come unbidden when we cast our selves down in thy presence Nay Lord thou hast beckned and called us Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden Hold fast to these two and who can forbid us to be comforted the Lord bids us pray and he gives us a heart to pray For it is not strange to his mercy perhaps it is strange to mans conceipt to give us strength to bring forth that obedience both to will and to do which himself hath commanded As he gave the Blessed Virgin strength to bring forth the Babe who was conceived and formed in her womb by the Holy Ghost This I do the rather enforce because we can see no comfort in our selves therefore as I derive all the vertue and spirituality that is in Prayer from the efficacy of Grace So I refer all the success to Christ in whom we are blessed with all spiritual blessings Eph. 1.3 Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name he will give it Jo. 15.16 But He and his Father are one therefore he says If ye shall ask the Father any thing in my Name I will do it Jo. 14. verse 14. If we had no better means to God than our selves and our own merits there were no hope to speed nay our hearts would be as faint and dead as if we heard our selves denied before we had opened our lips But we conclude as it is to
Christian Consolations Taught from FIVE HEADS IN RELIGION I. Faith II. Hope III. The Holy Spirit IV. Prayer V. The Sacraments Written by a Learned PRELATE Isaiah 40.1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Excellent Majesty 1671. TO THE READER THIS Manual of Christian Consolations derived from Five Heads of great importance in Religion was written by a late R. Prelate of our Church and is now Printed according to his own Copy The Papers were presented by him to a Person of Honour for whose private use they were designed But as the Noblest Spirits are most communicative that Noble and Religious Lady was pleased to impart them for the good also of others We read in the Evangelists how that the Holy Jesus who went about doing good that 's the short but full Character which * Acts 10.38 Saint Peter gives of him did by a Miracle of Mercy bless five Loaves to the feeding of a very great multitude And may the same Almighty Goodness bless and prosper whatsoever Spiritual good is contained in these Five Helps and Directions for a Christian's Comfort to the refreshing and strengthening of such Souls as truly hunger and thirst after God May the serious and devout Readers taste and see how good the Lord is that his Loving kindness is better than Life and that the Light of his Countenance the sense of his favour is infinitely more Heart-cheering and brings with it a truer and larger satisfaction than the encrease of Corn Psal 4. and Wine and Oil doth to the men of this world who only or chiefly mind Earthly things and unwisely place their felicity in the fading and empty enjoyments of this present life It is good then that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3. for he is good to them that wait for him to the Soul that seeketh him He who is the God of Love and even * 1 Jo. 4. Love it self He who is the ever-flowing Fountain of Goodness will not fail to fill the hungry with good things Such a Christian hath meat to eat which the world knows not of he feeds on the hidden Manna he hath as S. Austin said of S. Ambrose occultum os in corde ejus and with this he doth sapida gaudia de pane Dei ruminare The Father of the World who openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145. giving to all their meat in due season he is as ready to fulfil the desire of them that fear him he will give grace and glory Psal 84. and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly And here from the character and qualification of the Persons them that fear him and them that walk uprightly it highly concerns us to observe and to lay it to heart That a Sincere desire and Serious endeavour to fear God and walk uprightly is a necessary and indispensable Condition to qualifie and make us meet for the receiving of the best of Divine favours and blessings We must first walk in the fear of the Lord if we would walk in the Comfort of the Holy Ghost as these two are set together in Acts 9.31 If we would have the Spirit to be our Comforter we must follow the Spirit as our Guide and Counsellor If we would find rest unto our Souls we must take Christ's yoke upon us Matth. 11. the yoke of his Precepts which are all holy and just and good A state of inward Comfort and true Tranquillity of Spirit can never be secured and preserved but by a continued care to walk before God in a faithful obedience to his Will in all things For there is no peace to the wicked as is * Chap. 48. 22. Chap. 57. 21. twice exprest by the noble Prophet Isaiah But Great peace have they that love thy Law Psal 119.165 saith the Royal Psalmist the man after God's own heart who herein spake his own experience and elsewhere Psal 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace While he lives he lives in peace his Soul dwells at ease he feels an unspeakable joy and pleasure within upon the sense of his doing his duty and being faithful in obedience to his Lord and Master in Heaven And when he dies he departs in peace and shall * Isa 57. enter into peace and ‖ Mat. 25. into the joy of his Lord. Here he tastes how sweet the Lord is but there he shall be abundantly satisfied with the plenty of God's House Psal 37. and made to drink of the River of his pleasures The meek shall eat and be satisfied and their heart shall live for ever Psal 22. And so full and compleat shall be their joy and satisfaction that they shall neither hunger nor thirst any more Rev. 7. for the Lamb shall feed them and shall lead them unto living Fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes This is the happy Portion of those Souls who have the Lord for their God with whom there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures most pure and permanent for evermore The Contents of the Chapters THe Introduction CHAP. I. Of Faith That Faith is the Ground and Foundation of a Christian's Comfort Several doubts and scruples about Believing answered Page 1. CHAP. II. Of Hope That a Christian's Comfort flows from the Grace of Hope The object of Hope is 1. That which is Good 2. A Good absent 3. Though absent yet possible and that for Three Reasons 4. Though possible yet difficult An account of two sorts of difficulties with particular encouragements against them Pag. 13. CHAP. III. Of the Holy Spirit How a Christian's Comforts flow from the Inhabitation and Testimony of the Holy Ghost as also from the Sanctification of the Spirit unto all Obedience and the fruits of Righteousness Pag. 67. CHAP. IV. Of Prayer Prayer is the great Instrument of a Christian's Comfort Concerning Prayer three things to be considered I. The Substance or Matter of Prayer in three Heads 1. Thanksgivings 2. Supplications 3. Intercessions II. The Qualification of them that Pray III. The fitness of Time for Prayer Pag. 99. CHAP. V. Of the Sacraments How the Sacraments minister to a Christian's Comfort A general Survey of Sacraments Five Reasons why God ordained Two Sacraments under the Gospel What Comforts flow from the Grace of Baptism What Comforts flow from the Lord's Supper Pag. 155. Christian Consolations taught from five Heads in Religion THE INTRODUCTION THE work of the Ministry consists in two things in Threatnings or Comforts The first is useful for the greatest part of Christians who are led by the Spirit of bondage and
the Lions that devoured us This is Charity not only to have Communion with all the Saints but compassion for all the world Therein we follow the foot-steps of Christ in his mediatorship as far as we are able who hath an unchangeable Priesthood and ever lives to make Intercession for us Heb. 7.25 And who bare the sins of many and made Intercession for the transgressors Isa 53.12 Likewise it is the office of those that have great interest in God's favour to bless others with their Prayers as the Lord told Abimelech King of Gerar Abraham is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live Gen. 20.7 So he said to Eliphaz the Temanite and to his other two friends My servant Job shall Pray for you for him will I accept Job 42.8 All Israel had been destroyed for worshipping the Calf in Horeb had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath Psalm 106.23 What says an old writer art thou Moses more merciful than God art thou more pitiful to the people than he that saves us from all evil No says he thou art infinite short of the loving kindness of the Lord but he put thy Charity to the proof to see what vehement entreaties thou wouldst make for the deliverance of the Nation When the same people were like to be overrun by the Philistines what course did Samuel take says he Gather all Israel to Mizpah which was a Proseucha or place for publick Prayer and I will Pray for you to the Lord 1 Sam. 7.5 And you shall find most victorious success upon it Verse 10. What comfortable Orators are the mighty Saints of God what a safeguard it is unto us all when they live among us A wise man is the price and redemption of many fools says a Heathen so a Mediator that is very dear to God is a protection not only to the good but to the wicked that are about him Have we not cause then to Pray for the continuance of such that they may live long to Pray for us Should Paul need to desire the Prayers of the Thessalonians 1 Epist 5.25 or of the Hebrews Chap. 13.18 Could they forget that which so much concern'd their welfare Now the worthy servants of the Lord may prevail much one by one others of the common rank had need to meet by hundreds and by thousands in great congregations that every single mans Prayer may be a drop in a shower that while every man Prays for all all may Pray for every man So great is the opinion of good consequents from the Intercession of Gods servants that infidels and ungodly who thought it would be labour in vain to speak to God for themselves have sued unto the Saints on Earth to prefer petitions for them Darius that worshipt false Gods sent to the Jews at Hierusalem to Pray for the life of the King and his Sons Ezra 6.10 And they that persecuted Jeremy besought him Pray for us unto the Lord our God Jer. 42.20 And Simon Magus turn'd himself to Peter and the Apostles to intercede for him Pray unto the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me Acts 8.24 This is the summ that Intercession of Prayer whether active or Passive whether it be to give or to receive a blessing is exceeding full of Consolation II. To go in order to the next Head Who they be that shall get benefit and comfort by Prayer is quickly defined We know that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 to none other you may be sure He that doth not truly call the God of Heaven his Father as Christ begins his Prayer shall have no share in the portion of Sons We may intercede for prophane and impenitent men and our Prayer shall return into our own bosom But while they remain such the mercies of the Lord will be strange unto them They are not of the body of the mystical Church and all the fresh Springs are derived unto them that are within the Sanctuary While the Jews continued under the hardness of their heart God discharged the Prophet for appearing in their behalf Pray not thou for this people neither lift up cry nor Prayer for them neither make Intercession to me for I will not hear thee Jer. 7.16 And with no less or rather more severity Ezek. 14.14 Though these three men Noah Job and Daniel were in the land they should deliver none but their own Souls And if the wicked commence a suit in their own name the Lord will not be entreated of them What have they to do with holy Ordinances that have no fellowship with holy practices To come before the Lord with a lap full of sins and a mouth full of prayers what an Heterogeneal Sacrifice is it will the Mediator Christ Jesus bring it for them before his Father If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Psalm 66.18 And the throne of iniquity shall have no fellowship with thee Psalm 99. verse 20. Many in our land and in our days Pray for the confusion of them that brought all to confusion but themselves are in pursuance of notorious crimes and rebellion against God They would advance that government to which we have sworn to be faithful by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance but they make no conscience to break their Oaths and Covenants which they have made to God It is not to suppress sin and tyranny and injustice that they are instant with God but to be revenged for their own injuries and losses Their Prayers are compounded with such sins as quite marre them So many a pair of Beads have been dropt in corners for the extirpation of the Protestant Religion Many a Mass hath been said for the good success of Jesuitical Treasons Many a Rosary was run over to bring the Powder-treason to its bloudy birth If they have no better stuff than this in their Mattins they had as good Pray to Devils as to Saints I will that men Pray always or every where lifting up holy hands without wrath 1 Tim. 2.8 Let go wrath and malice and bitterness Holiness becometh the house of Prayer and holiness becometh the mouth of Prayer If any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Jo. 9.31 Do justly live chastly give charitably walk circumspectly and then Pray confidently For whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight 1 Epist Jo. 3.22 But then will the trembling Christian say wo is me for I am a great sinner wo is me for I am filthy and polluted and of unclean lips Isa 6.5 then how shall I turn me to my God in Prayer O thou that fallest low upon the Earth oppressed with the burden of thy sins stand up and be chearful before God none is fit for Prayer in the Militant
Church but such an humble sinner God draws thee and none but those that are like unto thee near unto his mercy Though thy sins do cleave unto thee be comforted that thou dost not cleave unto thy sins Elkanah gave a more worthy portion to Hannah that was barren but meek and devout than to Peninnah that bare him sons and daughters but was proud and scornful 1 Sam. 1.5 God hath heard his beloved Son when he made Prayers for sinners will hear those sinners that are his Sons when they ask any thing in the name of Christ III. Good fruit must be brought forth in a good season which only remains to be thought upon and to be added to the Consolation of Prayer For every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the Heaven Eccles 3.1 But neither days nor hours nor seasons did ever come amiss to faithful Prayer Evening and morning and at Noon will I Pray and cry aloud and He shall hear my voice Psal 55.17 which includes all the space of duration For all time is included in Morning Noon and Night Pray without ceasing 1 Thess 5.17 Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Ephes 6.18 Short passes quick ejections concise forms and remembrances holy breathings Prayers like little posies may be sent forth without number on every occasion and God will note them in his book But all that have a care to walk with God fill their vessels more largely as soon as they rise before they begin the work of the day and before they lie down again at night Which is to observe what the Lord appointed in the Levitical ministery a morning and an evening Lamb to be laid upon the Altar So with them that are not stark irreligious Prayer is the key to open the day and the bolt to shut in the night But as the skies drop the early dew and the evening dew upon the grass yet it would not spring and grow green by that constant and double falling of the dew unless some great showers at certain seasons did supply the rest So the customary devotion of Prayer twice a-day is the falling of the early and the latter dew but if you will increase and flourish in the works of grace empty the great clouds sometimes and let them fall into a full shower of Prayer chuse out the seasons in your own discretion when Prayer should overflow like Jordan in the time of harvest keep strictly as much as you are able to those times of the day which you have designed to appear in before the Lord for then you offer up not only your Prayers but the strict observation of set times which is a double sacrifice and an evidence that you will not dispense to pretermit that holy work for any a vocation He that refers himself at large to Pray when he is at leisure gives God the worst of the day that is his idle time I account them prudent therefore that are precise in keeping Canonical hours of Prayer as they call them so they Pray to God alone who alone knows their heart and so they Pray with the Spirit and with the Vnderstanding 1 Cor. 14.15 that is in a tongue wherein they know what they say and understand the language wherein they vent the meditations of their Spirit This was the milk that the Church of England gave every day out of her breasts to praise God in Common-Prayer at set hours before noon and after in the assemblies of her devout children How many have rejoyced to hear the Chiming of the Bells to call them together and would never miss their station As Peter and John went together to the Temple at the hour of Prayer being the ninth hour Acts 3.1 O when will these profane days come to an end that we may again so orderly so delightfully appear before the living God Of one thing the Devil disappointed us many years past in the time of Prayer which was the Night-offices of prayers called Vigils which are disused because it was feared they grew incident to scandal and uncleanness And though they be left off I believe for good reason in a concourse of open meeting yet let not God lose his tribute of Prayer which should be paid him in the still and quiet opportunity of the night The day is God's and the night is God's the darkness and light to him are both alike let not so many hours as run out from our lying down to our rising up again pass away without any Prayer Says David O Lord I remembred thee in my bed and meditated on thee in the night-watches Psalm 63.6 It seems while the Tabernacle of Moses stood that the Priests did some duties in it all night long Psalm 134.1 Bless the Lord ye servants of the Lord which by night stand in the house of the Lord. The Apostles allowed widows must continue in Supplication and Prayers night and day 1 Tim. 5.5 And Anna the widow-prophetess served God with Fasting and Prayers night and day Luke 2.37 The Lord hath foretold that he will come as a thief in the night at the great day 2 Pet. 3.10 Therefore O Lord with my Soul will I desire thee in the night and at midnight will I think upon thee and call unto thee that if it shall be this night even now when Christ Jesus will come to judge the world my Soul may find mercy from him and both Body and Soul may be glorified and so continue with him for ever All this about the opportunity of time shall shut up with one Instruction of the Psalmist Psal 32.6 Every one that is Godly shall Pray unto thee O Lord in a time that thou mayest be found When you find stirrings and impulsions more than ordinary to provoke you to Prayer follow the admonition of the Spirit and let not such a time slip You know not whether such a divine presage may rowle in your thoughts again I make no question but there are some Critical moments wherein God offers more than he will do again if you neglect him when he courts you with so great advantage But now change the case from mine to the whole Nations from private to publick then thus I will be peremptory in my resolution There is no time too late for any Christian that lives in his single person to beseech God to be merciful to him he may find the same propitiousness that the penitent thief did But there may be a time too late to save a Kingdom or a state from ruine when the Lord hath decreed the period of it Therefore when confusions threaten and begin to peep out watch them betimes and let the whole Land Pray for peace and let the Governours prepare conditions for it to avert publick calamitie If we let tumults and conspiracies grow to a head it will be in vain to struggle by monthly or weekly humiliations when our destiny is unavoidable Plutarch
committing Treason against God that is repossession of mercy endanger'd to be forfeited But were it a new Covenant we should have some new visible Sign for it which never was Therefore this is the very Soul of mine and every ones Baptismal Consolation that being once done it Seals pardon for all our sins through Christs bloud unto our lifes end BUT as if many Spouts should open into one Cistern so all Comforts conspire to meet in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Nothing else but the actual enjoying of Heaven is above it The Church which dispenseth all the mysteries of salvation can bring forth no better Children that are come to Age can ask no more than the whole portion of their Father's goods that come unto them and what is that but the Bloud of Christ and this is the New Testament in that Bloud Christ is mine his Body is mine his Bloud is mine all is mine O be glad and rejoyce and give honour to the Lord God Omnipotent for the marriage of the Lamb is come Revel 19.7 And the Spirit saith write Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb Verse 9. It is much to be received into a Covenant with God by the former Sacrament is it not more to be kept in Covenant by the other It is much in Baptism to be brought from death to life but what is life without nourishment to preserve it This keeps us in the Lease of the old Covenant that the Years of it shall never run out and expire This is food to keep us in health and strength that we never decay and faint By it we lay hold of the promise Isa 54.10 My kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Then why should I not embolden my heart with holy security against all fears for the Lord hath put himself into my hand and into my mouth and into my Spirit of what then should I be afraid This is that courage which our Liturgy sounds forth as with a shrill Trumpet to all that come to this Banquet well prepared It begins that it is a comfortable thing to all them that receive it worthily it bids us come with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet Conscience it proclaims aloud Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly come unto him So God loved the world c. Come unto me all ye c. This is a true saying c. It hath gathered the Sallies of spiritual joy as it were into a bundle of Myrrhe It adds Christ hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries as pledges of his love and for a continual remembrance of his death to our great and endless comfort And if all this put together will not blandish our Conscience and stablish our joy we would be dull and spirit-broken though an Angel from Heaven should come and say unto us as he did unto Gideon The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valour Jud. 6.12 For an Angel of the Lord cannot plead so much to the solace of the heart as the great Angel of the Covenant hath done in these great demonstrations of love as followeth 1. First As Baptism was the former so this is the second visible publication of God's apparent mercy It is not a bare message but a lively apprehension of them by palpable means not in a vision or a dream but in a real Object Call to mind that the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appeared unto him twice 1 Kings 11.39 Once the Lord hath appeared unto us in the token of his love by Water and once again he appears unto us in the Elements of his Holy Table Twice he hath appeared to bless thee Therefore eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry heart Eccles 9.7 For if you turn away from Comfort when the Lord hath appeared twice unto you to give it you he will be angry and leave you to a thick darkness of sorrow such as fell upon the land of Aegypt 2. Secondly The Lord can appear Comfortably unto us though with a Sword in his hand and in the midst of a Camp as he did to Josuah Jos 5.13 Or in a flame of fire as he did to Manoah Jud. 13.20 Or in a tempest upon the Sea as he did to the Apostles Matth. 14.27 Or at the Graves mouth as he did to Mary Magdalen Jo. 20.14 But here he appears unto us in a Feast which is a time of innocent delight The glory of God which we look for is set out unto us in that which our senses apprehend for sweetness and pleasure as Luke 22.29 I appoint unto you a Kingdom that ye may Eat and Drink at my Table in my Kingdom which is translated from bodily pleasure to spiritual that in the Heaven of blessedness the Soul shall feed continually as at a Banquet of which we have now a taste in the Kingly provision of Christs Supper It is a Kingly Feast although imparted in a little pittance of Bread and Wine yet it is more costly and precious to that which it signifies than Solomon and all his Court had for their diet day by day 1 Kings 4.22 We are brought to Eat at the King's Table as Mephibosheth was like one of the Kings Sons 2 Sam. 9.11 To Eat together is a Communion of more than ordinary acquaintance do you note the endearing favour of God in that And what are we that are not thrust as our kind might look for it to gather up Crums under the Board but to Eat our portion before the Lord with the Lord out of the hands of the Lord For he that brake Bread and gave it to the Apostles gives it to Us as our High Priest though he be in Heaven I exhort you therefore to enter into the Guest-chamber with a quiet and unshaken heart for the Lord hath not invited us as Absalom did Amnon to kill us nor as Esther did Haman to accuse us but as Melchisedech brought forth Bread and Wine to Abraham to bless us He gives us Asher's portion Bread that shall be fat and Royal dainties Gen. 49.20 Only the case is alter'd if Christ shall say the hand of him that betrays me the hand of him that loves me not the hand of him that believes not in me the hand of him that will not keep my sayings is on the Table That wretch shall be thrown out and be fed with Bread of sorrow and Water of affliction nay where there shall not be a drop of Water to cool his Tongue Thirdly That which astonisheth the Communicant and ravisheth his heart is that this Feast affords no worse meat than the Body and Bloud of our Saviour Those he gave for the life of the world these are the repast of this Supper and these we truly partake For